Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Votes ahoy!

This year sees the 20th anniversary of the moratorium that banned the commercial hunting of all whales and, according to recent reports, could also see Japan finally succeed in a widely criticised campaign to gain control of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and start to reverse that ban.

Though some whale species have rebounded since 1986, the future of others still hangs in the balance. The global whaling industry was so brutally efficient that blue whale numbers were cut from over 300,000 in 1900 to just a few thousand in the 1960s. Today perhaps 12,000 survive.

During the last decade, the Japanese have spent millions of dollars in aid packages to encourage poor nations – often landlocked or with no whaling history – to sign up to the IWC and vote with them. Japan is thought to have persuaded around 19 nations – such as Antigua, Belize, Gambia, Mali, Mongolia and Tuvala – to sign up since 1989. The IWC has swelled its ranks from 40 countries in 2000 to 66 countries this year.

In 2005, the anti-whaling group, led by the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, barely won through in voting down the pro-whalers, led by Japan, Norway and Iceland, on issues such as abolishing plans for a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary and introducing a secret ballot.

But at this year's meeting in June, it seems likely that the Japanese will finally have bought the 35 votes they need. They won't be able to reverse the ban outright, as that requires a 75% majority. But they will be able to introduce secret ballots, shut down the IWC's conservation committee and rescind the body's opposition to "scientific" whaling.

What I can't understand is why Japan is so desperate to resume commercial whaling anyway. Polls suggest that fewer than half of Japanese people have ever tried whale meat, and just 1% eat it regularly. Over 2000 supermarkets have stopped selling it in the last few years, due to lack of demand.